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Packers Fall to Vikings, QB Aaron Rodgers Likely to Miss Remainder of Season

As significant of a blow as they come, the Green Bay Packers may have lost their starting quarterback for the rest of the season.

Aaron Rodgers was tackled by Minnesota Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr in the first quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium, ultimately landing awkwardly on his throwing shoulder. Rodgers stayed on the ground for a few moments before being helped to the sidelines by trainers, all while yelling obscenities at Barr for the tackle.

Rodgers was soon carted to the locker room where X-rays determined the NFL's league-leader in touchdown passes suffered a broken right collarbone.

According to the team's announcement, Rodgers may potentially miss the remainder of the 2017 season.

This comes just a week after Rodgers' late-game heroics earned the Packers their most recent win against the Dallas Cowboys, putting them into a tie atop the NFC with the Philadelphia Eagles at 4-1. Now, he'll have to watch his team find a way to win without his physical presence.

"It definitely hurts," coach McCarthy said after the 23-10 loss to the Vikings. "As a football team, we have to move forward. Aaron's a great player, he's a huge part of our success and our program. But, this is the state of the National Football League; you have to deal with all of your injuries."

The Packers' coaching staff are no strangers to adversity, however, this kind of true challenge hasn't reared its ugly head in since 2013 when Rodgers fractured his opposite [left] collarbone.

Without Rodgers that year, the Packers cycled through a trio of quarterbacks. Seneca Wallace, Scott Tolzien and Matt Flynn all started, leading the Packers to a 2-4-1 record before Rodgers was able to return for the week 17 game and lift the Packers over the Chicago Bears for the NFC North title.

This time around, the Packers have a little more stability in their backup quarterback situation. Brett Hundley is entering his third season with the team in a familiar system coached up by quarterbacks coach Alex Van Pelt. Even with three interceptions to his credit, Hundley stepped in to relieve Rodgers and made a few impressive throws against the Vikings.

Hundley finished completing 18 of his 33 passes for 157 yards, one touchdown -- the first of his career -- and three interceptions. He was sacked four times, and that's not including the multitude of dropbacks he suffered crushing hits after getting throws off. That's almost expected, especially because by the end of the game, the Packers' starting offensive tackles were Justin McCray and Ulrick John, who was playing his first offensive snaps of the season on Sunday.

Both David Bakhtiari (hamstring) and Bryan Bulaga (concussion) left the game, tallying the consistently-growing injury list for the Packers.

"It's a tough spot in our season we're grinding through," McCarthy said. As for Rodgers, McCarthy didn't have any further update or a timetable on his injury since he had yet to speak to the medical staff.

Rodgers' on-field absence is going to be noticeable, but thankfully, his overall being won't be nonexistent. He'll be available to coach Hundley and provide pointers wherever the ex-Bruin needs them, including in maneuvering through a collapsing pocket, which Rodgers seemed to effortlessly do and something that Hundley had a few opportunities to do on Sunday as well.

"Aaron [Rodgers] is a great mentor, he's been in this spot before," McCarthy said. "We're going to rally around this thing and beat the Saints. I have confidence in Brett Hundley."

It sucks but there is nothing to gain by wallowing in misery, IMO. I'm just a fan and my life won't change all that much if the Packers are SB contenders or not. I'll still watch them and pull for wins. I'll just expect them less frequently.

Let the (temporary) Brett Hundley era begin! May it prove fruitful next May!

This sucks. But the season isn't over. The D needs to be above average. Now. And Hundley obviously needs to grow. While he won't ever be ARod, I think the can be a middle of road QB. Those two things combined will be anough to win the division. And if that happens, we will get multiple 1st round picks for Hundley. But we aren't winning anything in the playoffs without Arod.

Or, this whole thing might implode. We might end up 5 and 11. And that would thankfully get Capers fired and TT to retire. And we'd get a top 10 pick finally.

The old boy network will keep DC as long as he wants it as he seems to remain blameless all these years of poor D. Now with so many injuries, even I admit that it will be hard to blame him.

This team has focused on offense only for far too long. Makes sense in an offense minded league. But offense is too thin and that has come back to haunt us now. We will see next week if we stand any chance to salvage the season. Guessing that there is only a 20% chance of that happening.

I wonder how many people beside Mike McCarthy hold Capers blameless for the performance of the Packers defense. His opinion is the only one that matters when it comes to Capers' employment in GB. I suppose TT could force the issue if he wanted but that doesn't seem like TT's style.

I think it could very well be that Capers is working his last NFL job.

Zero sacks and 10 missed tackles by dbacks, two of which on the swing pass that hit the ground. Takes the refs out of the game by making those tackles and forcing the punt. Quick reminder, ZERO SACKS! Dynamic Dom's defense dialing it up! Zero sacks! Four man rush, no pressure, holes in the zone as always , missed tackles on back end. And some people on here wrote the defense held their own today. Ha!

Correct Dobber as usual. Also, Barr's hit was technically legal but it was a cheap shot in that it was unnecessary. A penalty flag could go either way and it would not prevent Rodgers injury but Barr could have and should have pulled up. It was a cheap shot against a defense less player at that point. Thanks, Since '61

Hard to beleive the NFL really cares about player safety when cheap shots on defenseless players go unpunished. Or like the cheap shot on Adams the punishement gets reduced. Maybe the NFL should have the fines put on players given to the players they injured rather than pocketing the money. Otherwise donate that money to hospitals which is where these players often end up.

If there's 60 plays a game, a LB like Barr rushes maybe 25-30 times, and usually doesn't get a sniff of the QB. So when he gets a chance to vent his frustration and take a shot, he takes the opening and hammers the QB. Do I like it - no. Is it unnecessary, probably. Would I play that way if I were a player in his position. Yes.

Rodgers takes some risks, an yesterday they came back to bite him. Just like the play against Chicago where he got hurt last time. Another LB, same type of play. In the old days they told QB's not to run the ball and expose themselves to those type of hits.

I have instantly become a Joe Callahan fan. You need the it factor to be a solid qb in this league and Hundley doesn't seem to have it. After a few losses I could see Calli being given a chance, at least he can scramble. With the O line we got now, we're going to need a QB that can run and make plays with his legs.

I still believe in MM. If he says Hundley is our QB. I'm with him. The guy does have an arm. He seems to know the offense. Give MM time. Hundley needs Touch. And the biggest problem was the blitz by the vikings. Every QB goes through it. We know no-one is A-rod. But I'm going with MM here.

No, you're not the only one yelling for Rodgers to get rid of the ball quicker. It's my one gripe about him. I try to tell myself is that he can make magic happens when he extends plays. And that mostly convinces me until the next game when I'm right back it it.

I’m as glass half full as you’ll find. But I’m doing sine drinking tonight. Maybe the season can be salvaged - and I will watch every second of whatever games are played- but a very special season just ended and it will be very hard to deal with that.

First things first, the Packers need to get the OL healthy. I'm not sure how bad Bulaga and Bak are hurt. We should get both of them back after the bye if they can't go next week.

Second Hundley gets a full week of reps with the first team which should help both him and the starting WRs. Also should help in reading the defense.

Third, we should get King back at CB by next week and hopefully, House and Burnett back after the bye at worst. That would help solidify the secondary.

Fourth, MM and Capers can use the bye week to reset the offense and defense based on which injured players will be back and we go from there. As Nick Perry and Bearmeat have correctly posted, now we will see what type of team we have without Aaron Rodgers. However, before we can accurately assess the team we need to play with a healthy OL and a healthy secondary.

Also, two changes that I would like to see.
First, I would like to start throwing to Kendricks rather than Bennett who has dropped too many passes already this season. Second, why isn't Josh Jones getting more snaps on defense? He needs to play IMO.

Bad day today but hang in there anything can happen. The Lions were trounced today and Atlanta lost at home to the Dolphins no less. The Vikings won today but they can be had and if AR weren't hurt we would have run them out of their stadium today. One play, one game at a time. Thanks, Since '61

If MM has any coach to him at all, this team will look completely different going forward. New QB who can't do what #12 does means the offense has to do things differently...that means unscouted looks for NO this week at Lambeau. Will that be enough for the offense to compete with the Saints? Well, the Saints are improved defensively, but they have a reputation for being a lousy road team. I'm with you: let's see what happens before we condemn this team too much.

Might be time for those two TE sets we'd been hoping for and becoming a true run-first team. That's my prediction for next week. Cobb sits.

Lions are a great garbage time team. Stafford saves plenty of fantasy teams in the last quarter of games.

Well, the worst case scenario just became a reality. If this team was relatively healthy otherwise, I'd say we have a pretty decent chance of making the post season. Unfortunately, we are the complete opposite of that right now. I know we say every year that we're hurt more than most, but this year is something else. Our starting OL and CB's are mostly squad guys at this point. Part of me feels like we should just throw in the towel and finally get a high draft pick. But the odds are so stacked now (I think officially we've have a 2% chance of making the SB), that most of me really just wants Hundley & Co. to come out and shock the NFL. Demolishing the Saints at home next week would warm my heart. Unlikely as heck, but I'll cheer 'em on anyways. Go Pack!

No quarterback can play well behind the current packe r line. Center gets pushed back and snaps the ball almost to the ground on every other pass snap. Run blocking or pass blocking are atrocious. Receivers are always covered . Qb's hold the ball too long (since no one is open). 3 and outs. No pass rush on defense. Soft coverage on defense..(opponents open by five yards consistently). Are these players that bad or is the offensive scheme and defensive scheme that poor. I think the latter.

Remember all those times on this exact website, when I would beg and plead my case that we needed our front office to do anything/everything they could to "win now"....?

This is exactly why. After both 2014 and 2015 I begged for FA and a better defense because I kept saying we were wasting away Rodgers years and that he was 1 injury away from being done with.

We are now going to get a little taste of what Green Bay Packer football is without Rodgers. This is almost a blessing in disguise. Hopefully it will open some eyes to what this organization truly is without Rodgers. I've said it before and I'll say it again, without Rodgers we're a 3-5 win ball team at best.

Maybe this will finally help people see the Packers for what they are instead of being blinded by Rodgers greatness.

When he comes back, we better build an actual team around him and stop wasting away his years like we've done. Cause in the blink of an eye he's going to retire, and we're not just going to be without him for 11 weeks, it'll be forever.

My take is the opposite. If you had spent all your cap for the one year to go over the top and that happens to be 2017, everything goes out the window. And the next few years, you would not have a competitive team. Fans complain about getting to the playoffs 8 years in a row and have only one SB to show for. But at least you have a shot year after year. You need a little luck to win the SB, and your odds are improved if you have more rolls of the dice.

You don't have to spend your entire cap and screw yourself for the following season, that's just what Packers fans have said when defending Ted Thompson the last 7 seasons.

It's been a few years since the Packers had players to step in after others leave. Look at the WR position. The Packers used to be able to run this offense because they had multiple WR who could beat any coverage. Now we don't have that luxury, we don't even have anyone waiting in the wings. Same thing on the O-Line. Have people forgot how bad Spriggs and Murphy were? How in the world can you let your 2 best AND reliable O-Linemen go 2 years in a row.

How many draft picks has Thompson used on defense the last several years? What does he have to show for it? Now I have serious doubt ALL those picks are that bad, but SHAME on MM and TT for letting Capers continue to draw a paycheck. The Steeler's knew Dick LeBeau's defense was a thing of the past, why aren't the Packers able to figure it out too. THAT defense depends on 2 OLB who can generate 20 to 25 sacks a season combined. The Packers are paying how many millions for Perry and Matthews and getting what in return????

CLEAN HOUSE!!! Rodgers will be 35 at the end of next season! Do whatever you can to win NOW (Next Year & a few years after).

All right, all right, you Hundley haters will most likely be eating crow. The last pick he was getting hit when releasing it. Smith made a great one handed pick. The first was, well his 1st. Monty should have had a TD. We'll see now how good of a HC MM really is. The NFL is all about winning, nothing more.

Losing Rodgers this season REALLY hurts. He's going to be 34 in December which means he'll be 35 next year before the seasons end, 35!!! Where has the time gone? He was 27 when he won SB 45 and I know most of here as well as just about everyone on planet earth thought he'd have been back at least a few more times. FAST FORWARD 7 years and Rodgers hasn't made it back yet.

IMO I feel like Rodgers was taken for granted a little bit. I think the organization did as little as possible to help Rodgers get back to the promised land. There were very few FA signings, never a trade before the deadline, and when there were obvious needs at positions like Safety, Tight End, OLB, or RB, Thompson would sometimes completely ignore the need for multiple seasons. Whenever a player was at or near the old age of 30 Thompson would cut him or low ball him so badly the player had no choice but to leave.

I might be acting a little dramatic but when I look at the Packers right now I can't help but think were very near the end of a very special era of 25 plus years. My biggest fear is the Packers keep Thompson another 2, 3, or even 4 more years and NOTHING changes.IMO the Packers can't afford to keep Thompson any longer. Rodgers is running out of years.

As much as I want to blame the OL and poor backup OL talent planning by TT, I still can't get past that Rodgers got injured on the play for holding the ball too long. It's basically the double edged sword of rodgers, like Favre's rocket balls.

Yes Nick, you are being a tad dramatic. You need to relax, drink more green and gold kool aid. (Help's the eye sight. Things seem...... different) And always, when in doubt BLAME JERRY JONES. (The fount of all evil in the football world 0:)

Let's all wait until after the next game before the doom and gloom, burn it down, fire everybody talk begins. BH has two weeks to prepare with the first string offense. The defense did pretty well today considering how much time they spent on the field. The team will be healthier though less talented next time they play on television. Be patient. We might be pleasantly surprised; or we might actually burn down lambeau. Only time will tell.

2 weeks to prepare.how do you figure? Saints are in 6 days .. you could have 2 years to prepare but when you have 2 healthy starting o-linemen (the 2 worst starters nonetheless) it doesn't matter....Hope Hundley doesn't die!

Don't recall who said it last week, but someone posted that Packers D would make Chase Keenum look like a world beater. He wasn't that, but put up darn good numbers.

Even if Hundley makes a big jump this week, what in the world is the D going to do against Drew Brees?

With all the injuries to O line and D backs, we can still pull for Hundley, hope to heal up during the bye, and know that if the worst happens the Pack will get higher draft picks in 2018 and AR will be back.

I said thielen was gonna roll, Rudolf was going to roll and Case would look like an all star. Next thing ya know dynamic Doms defense had zero sacks and 10missed tackles today while rushing 4 and getting gashed in the zone coverage. Dynamic Dumbfounded Dom dialing it up!

Yep, me too. I predicted Keenum distributing the ball well with Minn's receivers that are under-rated even with Diggs on the bench. Implored Capers to shut down the short, middle pass, and half back pass, and dare Keenum to throw deep balls.

Predicted that McCarthy would try to run the ball too much against the strength of Minn D...and get off to slow start. Implored MM to run screens.

Predicted Minn winning the turnover differential and winning.

Predicted this to be a 9-7 team even with Rodgers. Still sticking with that prediction. Minn is a good team with goofy colors and history.....so its hard to predict they'll go far in post season.

Time to draft a quarterback with the top 5 pick the Pack is going to get this coming year. Hundley is a nice guy, but he is just a guy and will not win many (if any) games this year.
Turn out the lights boys, the 2017 party is over. Sorry, but McFatty has gravy trained off Favre/Rodgers for too long. It's time to pay the piper.

Tough to see another tough injury especially to Rodgers, but can’t see much optimism going forward anyway as it looks like the same old D. To me they look a lot like last year. MIN has many injuries on O and still backup Keenum prevails.

Predicted 9-7 season even with rodgers. Still sticking with it. We'll win some, but the D can't do its job. Capers has failed with yet another year of new personnel. Clearly time to cut Capers, and now seems just as good a time as any.

I have one discussion regarding Ty Montgomery rib injury, when I was ridiculed over my prediction of healing broken ribs.

I will tell you again, there is cure, named "osteogrow" which is designed to speed up bone fracture healing by twice. In 2013, when Aaron suffered his first collarbone injury, that drug was in clinical testing. Today, people use that cure regularly. And osteogrow is one of the reasons why Ty Montgomery healed miraculously fast...

Any high expectations for this year are in shambles . Without ARod any hope that he would carry this team while the defense found its way is gone. I'm stunned. Number one by what happened to Rodgers and second by the continued inabilty of this team to cover the middle and make a damn tackle.

I'll probably get a lot of dislikes for this, That's Fine, but you need to Face Facts. "This Is The Dagger" IT'S OVER. This season is DONE!! Don't even think about Winning another game. Think about Losing All the remaining games. Think about going 4-12 & getting a Top Pick. GB is not going anywhere this year, Unless Favre comes back & leads us to another SB. What a Movie that would make.

It's like a Parlay I had. I hit 3 out of 4, & the Refs Screwed me on the Pass they called incomplete for a TD on the Jets. That would have put the game at 48. That was a Controlled Call by the Refs that cost me $300. Think what you want. Maybe you'll see it someday. The Money is gone. All I can do is start over. That's what GB NEEDS TO DO, like it or not.

AR might be Done. That Right Collar Bone, could be his Career. I hope not. It would be BAAAD BEAT. The NFL will go on, & so will GB, just like they did after Favre. I don't want to say this, but we need to think about a Replacement for AR. I would play the 6th String, Dom Capers, TT, & the Conditioning Coach the rest of the year. I Hate to say this, but GB looks like their on Death Row everywhere you look. Start thinking of the future. It does us NO GOOD to win even 1 more game this year.

This isn't the way I wanted to say "I Told You So", but I posted yesterday in Cheese Head Predictions, That Something Was Up With This Game. I can't believe The Sports Books could see this coming, but they were definitely Concerned about something? It Amazes me how they do it. Go RE-Read my post, & then Post your Dislikes.

I'm going to put it as Sick as I can. This is a Knife through our Hearts, & could be the end of a 25 year Run, the likes of which, "You'll Never See Again"
LVT

Omg, I just read the comment section in its entirety and wow what a bunch of whining sissies. Yeah it sucks, but man, grow up. It's not lost yet, give the dudes a chance to game plan without AR. Sissies!

The talent and greatness of AR has covered up a lot of flaws in the basic structure of the Packers which may be showing up in a big way now,, especially with 15 starters and rotational players injured.

The defensive backs scheme is way too complicated for all the UDFAs first and 2nd yr players. Look at Seattle, known for their effective simple defensive scheme. Packers rarely have a top 5 to 8 defense on the field because AR is so good and puts up enough points to carry an average or below average defense.
Packers defense has the speed and talent to be good now if the scheme was simplified for the young talent.

I contend that Packers 4 top WRs are excellent route running, possession WRs,, with below average speed and that lack of deep speed threat problem has been masked by ARs ability to scramble until a WR breaks open.
TT and MM don't use the speed ones they have or try to find or develop some WR speed. They let burner Crockett go who AR complemented in preseason.

Now with Hundley,, will Hundley be able to scramble enough to find an open WR like AR could?
This same type of thing happened in 15 when the speedy, field stretching, Jordy Nelson went out and starting game 7 against Denver,, Denver loaded the box along with strong man press coverage on WRs which pretty much stressed out AR rest of season as other teams also did.

Including IR I count 15 of the starting 22 plus few rotational players injured.
No matter how good Hundley is,, he has a rough row to hoe.

If Hundley started from game 1, we lose to the Bengals, Falcons, Cowboys, Vikings, and the Seahawks. And thats a fact. So what exactly are you expecting from him going forward? Its nice to be optimistic but damn. The last time Rodgers was out he was coming back at least and Eddie Lacy literally carried us before he stopped caring about his career. No such luck this time. Seasons O-VER!

And I've said this before about the defense and it went largely ignored so I will say it again. We are a base 3-4 defense. Even with the nitro package and a safety playing ILB as far as I can tell thats still 2 ILB's, 2 OLB's and 3 down lineman correct? Thats a 3-4. I know we have extensively used other awful looks and fronts but at its core we are building a 3-4 by the players we draft and the players we have brought in. Heres the problem, ready ?here it is hopefully youre listening this time. When you think 3-4 defenses the first 2 teams that come to mind are the Steelers and Ravens. I think its safe to say that they have sustained a certain level of success using it. 1 GLARING difference between those teams and us is the AMOUNT OF FIRST ROUND PICKS CONSTANTLY BEING SPENT ON OUTSIDE LINEBACKERS, INSIDE LINEBACKERS! (wait you mean youre allowed to draft them before round 4???) and DEFENSIVE LINEMEN. CONSTANTLY. And for the most part these are 2 teams who usually are picking no earlier than mid first round also. So I dont want to hear it. If you want to run a 3-4 you need to be 2 deep in the front 7 with above average talent. And its entirely possible. They do it year in and year out. We will never be good defensively when our depth goes from STARTER to LETS PRAY FOR THE BEST. Nate Palmer, Kyler Fackrell, etc. Its no mystery. It really isnt. Ted Thompson is more worried about the pats on the back he gets and the smoke blown up his ass when- 1 out every 400 undrafted free agents he signs and inevitably ends up starting turns into a Sam Shields or a Tramon Williams-than winning a God damn Super Bowl. We are not set up to have a good defense anytime soon either for this reason and thats a fact. Sure we have a few building blocks but theres no depth and no real talent anywhere else and its going to take a couple of years minimum to build what ALREADY SHOULD HAVE.

Just in case you didn't know what a fact was. Who knows if we would have won with Hundley instead of Rodgers. There's no way to know so saying that we'd lose every game and that's a fact I think the word you were looking for was fiction.

All we can do is wait and see what Hundley brings to the table. Go in with LOW expectations and be glad if we get a win. Without Aaron and due to extensive injuries we'll really see what our depth tallent looks like. Lets see what our rookie runningbacks can do and what kind of potential Biegel has.

Couple of comments. The Dallas game ready hurt the Packers this week. Playing in the Dallas heat ready hurt the secondary's ability to recover this week, and made them more than likely to get injured. A lot of those missed tackles were due to tired legs. Same with lower leg injury suffered by Randall, Rollins and Picpkins ? The O line situation has become dire. The Packers would not played either of their starting tackles this week, if they had other choices. Good lord, the Packers ran out of bodies due to Dallas, and their inability to recover this week pretty much doomed them. One final aside. This is the second week we have had flat out bad calls and lost of game control by a Referee crew. If the NFL does not get a handle on this, somebody is going to die on the field. And that will end the NFL as we know it.

Not going to hold out hope that AR will be back this year. The team announced the probability he was done for the year. For them to come out and say that on the day of the injury, it could be there is more damage than just the collarbone itself. Could be tendon damage or rotator cuff injury. Hope it is not the latter, because that would mean he will never have the same arm again.

Hundley is going to have a tough time simply because there is no offensive line. Rodgers was able to compensate for how bad it is. It is worse now. Dumping Sitton and not resigning Lang and Tretter is rearing its ugly head.

I have called for Capers head for years. The defense never improves, even with different players plugged into the system. That spells out that his scheme is so predictable that most teams don't fear it. Also it is tough on young players to learn it. And watching how well the Vikings can tackle, and watching how bad the Packers tackle, is amazing. MM doesn't allow enough time on the art of tackling. These guys don't wrap up. Or they are so out of position they whiff on the attempt.

And I do believe the Strength and Conditioning coach should be shown the door. The guys on both sides of the ball, other than Daniels, are all easily beat by their opponents. Nobody got to Case Keenum. And that Vikings offensive line is not one of the leagues best by a long shot.

Ok so the coach of the vikings has a simple plan for his thrid string qb, short ball. Send out two te's - these would be the ones who actually can catch a football. No resemblance to Bennet.
Find the one open and pass. Repeat.

MM run rogers plays, sends receivers out 20 to 25 yards, if you have the time your quality O line provides, pass to an open receiver. If that fails to work, repeat.

Quote

"I firmly believe that any man’s finest hour, the greatest fulfillment of all that he holds dear, is that moment when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle – victorious."